Question
Can an HIV positive man still have children?
24 March 2007. Related: All topics, Pregnancy.
Can an HIV positive man still have children? If so, what is the risk to mother and child?
Answer
Thanks for your question which is very easy to answer.
The simple answer is a definite “yes” as being on modern HIV treatment also protects your partner.
As long as viral load is undetectable, the risk of transmission becomes zero. This means that your partner will not be at risk and the baby will be negative too.
The risk of a baby having HIV is only directly related to the HIV status of the mother, not the father.
So if your partner is also HIV positive, this is how you can have an HIV negative baby.
The i-Base guide to HIV, Pregnancy and Women’s Health includes a chapter on planning pregnancies and is available online or in print.
Note: This answer was last updated in January 2018 from an original post from March 2007.
Hello,
I’m very sorry to hear about your recent diagnosis. First of all it is very difficult to know when you were infected. Although it is possible that this recent partner was the source of your infection it is also possible that you could have had HIV for many years without knowing, and that your steady partner has just been lucky not to be infected.
Secondly, if your baby is HIV positive this doesn’t tell you who her father is. HIV passed from mother to child, not from the father. So if you are HIV positive it is possible for you to pass HIV to your baby, and this doesn’t change whether or not the father is HIV positive.
Please let me know if you have any more questions.
Hi, I found out that I am HIV positive when I was early pregnant with my daughter but there is one thing my partner of eight years father of my daughter is not hiv positive. I cheated durying the time of conception and don’t know if the other person is HIV positive whereas he possible is due to me turning up hiv positive. Does this mean that my baby is not for my partner of eight years if the baby is positive?
Hi Herbert
Please see the “planning your pregnancy” sections of the i-Base guide to pregnancy about option for having children n the future if this is something you both want to do.
Good evening my Fiancee is HIV negative and am HIV Positive and on ARV treatment my viral Load is less than 25. The thing is we want to have is we want to have a child. I need help please any help will do. Even the sperm wash and how much it can cost.
Yoursincerly
Hurbet
I just wanted to post and say that I am negative and my husband has been positive for nine years, he is on meds and undetectable, we have just had our second child and I remain negative. We collected semen and inserted it myself and only every other day while I was ovulating. Our first son it took eight months and our second just two months, we still can’t believe our eyes when we look at them. I hope this helps someone out there who’s looking for answers.
Hi,
Is your husband on treatment? If he is on treatment, with an undetectable viral load, you should be able to conceive naturally. Please see our pregnancy guide for more information. Let me know if you have any questions after reading it.
My husband is HIV positive and I am HIV negative. We want to try to have kids but I dont want to get infected and we dont afford sperm washing or artificial insemination. Is there any way for us to do this?
Hi Princess,
It’s unlikely that these blisters are a symptom of HIV but it’s important to get a doctor to look at them. Even if these are not related to HIV there may be a way to stop them coming back so it’s important to talk to a doctor. If your daughter tested negative at 6 weeks it is very unlikely that she is positive but usually children are tested for HIV again when they are 3 months old and again at 18 months. Please see our pregnancy guide info about testing babies.
Hi im hiv+ & my daughter tested negative after 6 weeks,they never told me to come back after a certain period,since 3 years my daughter appears blisters in legs n hands bt once in a year & thy never lasted for more than 2 weeks.she never got sick since she was born or loose weight she’s getting fatter each n everyday & turning 5 on july,so is it possible that those blistters can be hiv symptoms?
I don’t know when sperm washing was first discovered. But babies conceived this way are just as healthy as any other HIV negative baby. There isn’t any real risk of HIV transmission with sperm washing. But it can be harder to conceive than trying to conceive by having sex. There’s more information about sperm washing in our pregnancy guide.